xwing_miniatures_second_editionfandomcom-20200222-history
Talk:Hotshots and Aces Reinforcements Pack/@comment-5.173.144.15-20200118170645/@comment-454133-20200119061643
Oh excellent. Slave I, Fang Fighter, Modified TIE, and Z-95 are a solid base for some fun Scum games. And yes, Scum is a delightful faction! You have chosen well, in this admin's opinion. ;) I do agree that outside of very casual games, Lando's Falcon doesn't see much play. The Escape Craft does, mainly because it's a dirt-cheap craft with coordinate, which makes it a pretty useful support piece. That's a lot of money to spend though on a little support craft and maybe a few cards. Hopefully future updates will help out Lando's Falcon a bit, but for now it languishes. Speaking of languishing, the Jumpmaster is... polarizing. When it works it works very well (and in the past, it's been Dengar that works). It keeps getting its points cost reduced and getting new slots added... and that's helping a lot, but views are still mixed. Personally I like Dengar's ability and initative quite a lot, but the dial on his ship is a big challenge. The new pilot Nom Lumb is both very cheap, and very good at getting shots because his turret always rotates to face his attacker (which also works with the Dengar gunner). This is a winning combination, and I've heard good reviews of him from people giving the pilot early table time. Add to that the new cannon slot and he's almost always getting to attack someone. At such low initiative he's also good at blocking movement, which is extremely useful with such a fat base, and can be combined with Feedback Array. Nom with Autoblasters, Dengar, and Feeback Array is just 50 points, a quarter of your list for an annoying blocker with teeth. There's a lot of potential shenanigans in that build, and apparently people like how he performs on the table. There's actually a long and interesting history to the Jumpmaster's current design. In short, it was the most absurdly overpowered ship in the game in first edition. And first edition was dominated by a lot of overpowered fleets, it was a mess. But the Jumpmaster had the distinction of going through through wave after wave of nerfs and still it just kept coming back to dominate the meta. A major source of this problem was the amazing dial on the ship, which sported a white 2-sloop on the left, red 2-sloop on the right, and overall almost no red anywhere. It was also cheap, had great upgrade slots, and was just overall too good to nerf properly. This became very embarrassing for FFG; no matter how violently they nerfed the ship and how loudly the ship's fans complained about each nerf, the Jumpmaster was still a monster on the table. Every time we all thought "Yes, surely the Jumpmaster has hit rock bottom now, surely it couldn't possibly bounce back to dominate the meta..." well, it continued to dominate the meta. It bounced back every time. It was a monster that couldn't be slain. That shows you just how powerful it was before each nerf. I gotta tell you, I'm proud that my janky, off-meta fleets occasionally beat jumpmaster lists. :D Given the frustration and embarrassment of failing to to fix the jumpmaster for so long, when second edition rolled around FFG made damn sure that wouldn't continue. They nuked it into obscurity, and now they're slowly, carefully letting up on the brakes. With this latest update, we're finally reaching the point where the ship kinda feels decent to work with, but I feel there's still some room for improvement. It's a solid ship with very interesting options, but it's not quite tournament level stuff. That dial is a big reason why. Anyways, onwards! Maul (Crew) is kind of a popular card in Scum as it's one of the very few sources of Force for them, Asajj being the other. Force is a source of free dice modification, which is somewhat uncommon and very useful in second edition (whereas in first edition free dice mods were handed out like candy and just expected). The fact that Maul is a crew card means he can fit rather comfortably in several ships. Nobody even cares about or uses his ability text most of the time: the stress isn't necessarily worth it. Rather, that single force point effectively grants a calculate token that regenerates itself every turn and can't be taken away by cards like Old Teroch. As of this writing, he costs 12 points. That sounds high because it is high (12 is a big points investment), but it's also worth it for the free force. Autoblasters are nice because they're the cheapest damaging cannon (jamming beam and tractor beam are status effects). They're just 3 points and they work well for ships like the M3-A and Jumpmaster. For the Jumpmaster, it's a cheap way to guarantee you have a forward-arc attack at all times, so Nom for example can count on being able to shoot forward even if his turret is force to the side (though autoblasters can't shoot at range 3). The bonus die if you have bullseye on the target is quite handy, as you'll find yourself getting a bullseye shot on occasion. And crits being unblockable if you're not in their forward arc? Yea, that has some nice potential. Even if you're not actively trying to get bullseye or flanking shots, you will get them on occasion and that helps take the autoblaster's value up beyond a mere 2-dice attack. Bossk has a neat ability on an affordable 4-Initiative Z-95, making him a good filer ship with some bite. The conversion kit's Proton Bombs, Shield/Hull Upgrades, Jamming Beams, etc are all handy. Given that you have invested already in the faction, the conversion kit will get you a boatload of cards to fill out your options. I should mention though that if you're not worried about physical ownership of the cards, Proxying is a fine alternative. If you just print out your list (or have it on a tablet) with something like YASB or another good squad builder, you both avoid having to hunt down all the cards each time you play, and you avoid having to buy expensive expansions just for its cards, instead freeing you up to focus on buying ships. You will need the cards to play in official events. But I recommend proxying to anyone who doesn't want to spend a fortune just to enjoy the game to its fullest. As for whether to ignore the conversion kit's cards and buy more ships... If you decide proxying is for you, then that makes the answer to your question really easy: favor getting more ships. An M3-A and perhaps another Fang or Z-95 will give your team more versatility, and since you're not keen on getting 1E ships, the buying the expansions for their models is probably the way to go. That said, one advantage of the conversion kit is if you find someone who's selling some models for really cheap (for example, a Lancer, Y-Wing, Aggressor, G-1A, Kihraxz, Kimogila, Quadrijet, etc), you already have all the components (dial, base, etc) to field that model because you bought the conversion kit. This may open an avenue for growing your faction's options quickly & cheaply with converted 1E ships. IMO some of the more fun options for scum still aren't released as 2E expansions, so conversion is the only way to get them for now. So I guess I'm ending on a bit of an ambiguous note, but that also means you have solid options and it's up to you which direction works best for you. I hope that answers your questions and helps you on your way!